Minot CATM inspects them all

  • Published
  • By Airman 1st Class Artemy Shpakovsky
  • Minot Air Force Base Public Affairs
MINOT AIR FORCE BASE, N.D. --  Combat Arms Training and Maintenance -- the place every Airman has some connection to -- from security forces to medical assistants and from tactical air control to public affairs writers.

Every member of the enlisted force remembers this day -- the day when may be for the first time they were taken from normal life in basic and given an opportunity to do something some have never done before -- take up a weapon and shoot. Some more excited than others that they've done for the first time what they signed up for -- bear arms in defense of this nation. That time was the first they went to CATM.

CATM is one of the most important services on any base -- they provide the weapons training to every Airman before a deployment. Not only that, they do something most do not even realize CATM does -- they inspect all weapons on base.

"Some weapons require an inspection twice a year," said Tech Sgt. Michael Logan, 5th Security Forces Squadron CATM noncommissioned officer-in-charge. "This is the job which takes up most of our time."

At first, the CATM personnel are notified by a unit's weapons custodian that their weapons are due for inspection. After the notification, the appointment is set up for the unit to bring in the weapons to CATM, or, if the amount of weapons is too large, the inspectors go to the unit. There are five types of inspections: pre-issue, annual, semi-annual, pre-embarkation, post deployment and turn in.

"If we are doing a pre-embarkation inspection on an M-4 or M-16A2, this evaluation requires a full serviceability assessment and full gauging," Sergeant Logan said.

During the serviceability portion the weapon is carefully disassembled and every single part is checked for broken, missing and worn parts. It is also checked for cleanliness and proper lubrication. After the checks are performed, different precision gauges are applied.

"These gauges check the straightness of the barrel, and check to see if the chamber is eroded," said Sergeant Logan. "There is also a chamber reflector we insert in the chamber. Then we utilize a flashlight to see if there are any pits in the chamber."

The inspection equipment is not inexpensive. There are different gauges for every system. One full set of precision gauges used for the assessment of an M-16A2 has an approximate cost of $1,700. As a result of common use, the M-16A2 and M-4 are two of the most inspected weapons on base.

"The reason for this is that these weapons are most numerous on the installation," Sergeant Logan said.

Every single weapon has different criterion for inspection. All of them have to be visually checked for serviceability and most of them have precision gauges, but there are different gauges for every weapon system.

"During an annual for extended storage weapons, we are required to complete 20 percent of the total number of extended storage weapons," said Sergeant Logan. "Out of that 20 percent, 100 percent must receive a full serviceability visual inspection, 25 percent of which require full gauging."

Once the weapon passes all of the tests, it is processed for reassembly. Later, one final function check is performed. Following the function check, comes the annotation of its condition on a specific form which determines whether the weapon has passed all of these tests.

"If a weapon has a broken, missing or worn out part, we repair it if capable," said Sergeant Logan. "Once all weapons requiring an assessment have been processed, we complete a weapon inspection report which gets sent to the unit receiving the inspection."

Usually, one qualified combat arms instructor is enough to inspect any weapon. But the number of weapons to be inspected dictates how many instructors will be making the weapon evaluation.

"Right now, we have only eight security forces members serving as both instructors and weapon inspectors," said Senior Airman Brian J. Carpenter, 5th SFS combat arms instructor.

"That means there are only eight of us to do the job for the whole base," added Tech. Sgt. Earl L. Mills, 5th SFS CATM assistant NCOIC.

Eight CATM instructors, completing their unit's mission, which ensures Minot's Airmen can deploy, change stations or go to a temporary duty assignment. They are the warriors who work among us, making sure we can protect our nation -- they are the CATM Airmen.

For more information, call 723-3194

[Editor's note: This is a three-part series highlighting the critical mission CATM Airmen complete on daily basis.]